Cutting larger crickets

[ericchaos]

I get the "small" crickets from petsmart, and a lot of them are still way too big to feed my baby.

Would it be practical to cut them in half, then feed each half to him? Or would all the guts lost in the process eliminate any actual nutrition from the crickets?

I know its not very pretty or nice, but I'm just trying to get the most out of my money.

 

[MrWhite]

I know my guy will not eat a dead cricket.

 

[lauraj1055]

 

[ericchaos]

Unfortunately, my guy will only eat out of his own tank, so I feed him individual crickets by tweezers to make sure they don't outrun him and get lost (yes it takes a very long time). Most of the time, the tweezers end up killing the cricket in the process, but my guy still eats them anyway. So idk if it would be a problem for him.

 

[wendytx]

One time I was out of food and had to feed my baby canned crickets. I cut off the head cause it felt like the the hardest part of a cricket. But if you beardie is that small... You should consider feeding reptiworms. They last very long time and it is cheaper than crickets from petsmart.

 

[randommonks]

I've found that Petco has smaller small crickets than Petsmart has. But if you're going to continue with crickets, it's cheaper to order them online in bulk. I was going through about $10-15 per week in crickets at the pet store before I started using dubia roaches.

 

[lauraj1055]

I've found that Petco has smaller small crickets than Petsmart has. But if you're going to continue with crickets, it's cheaper to order them online in bulk. I was going through about $10-15 per week in crickets at the pet store before I started using dubia roaches.

I just got some crickets today at Petco for the 6 babies I have here to give them variety.. and now I know why I never used crickets! It took me 1/2 hour to get the rest out of the feeding tank, while they were crawling up my arms.. I have no clue how many escapees are out there.

 

[ericchaos]

One time I was out of food and had to feed my baby canned crickets. I cut off the head cause it felt like the the hardest part of a cricket. But if you beardie is that small... You should consider feeding reptiworms. They last very long time and it is cheaper than crickets from petsmart.

Are reptiworms an acceptable replacement to crickets? Do you still dust them with calcium and D3 like crickets?

And I tried bulk ordering crickets online. Half of them arrived dead, a lot escaped, and they didn't last longer than a day or two.

Reptiworms seem like a very cheap alternative, and if they could replace crickets for my baby, I would definitely consider the switch.

 

[randommonks]

I just got some crickets today at Petco for the 6 babies I have here to give them variety.. and now I know why I never used crickets! It took me 1/2 hour to get the rest out of the feeding tank, while they were crawling up my arms.. I have no clue how many escapees are out there.

Yeah after the 6th escapee, I switched to dubias. Pain to keep, pain to feed.

 

[wendytx]

Yeah one time I ordered crickets from LLLreptile. The box was crushed but they said it was not covered by life arrival guarantee because my area was too hot!?
I have heard that reptiworms/Phoenix worms are better than cricket because they are higher in calcium. http://www.beautifuldragons.com/Nutrition.html listed them as good staple and crickets are not.
I think you dont have to dust those with calcium but still with vitamin.

 

[ericchaos]

Ok so, just to make sure I'm not gonna end up killing my baby (god forbid)

I can safely feed him appropriately sized reptiworms instead of crickets? And The worms should be dusted with D3? Any other vitamins?

 

[wendytx]

I have read that if your dragon gets enough sun light you can omit D3. But for baby dragons they need to get multivitamin twice a week. I think you should do some more researches though.

 

[lauraj1055]

Ok so, just to make sure I'm not gonna end up killing my baby (god forbid)

I can safely feed him appropriately sized reptiworms instead of crickets? And The worms should be dusted with D3? Any other vitamins?

Reptiworms or phoenix worms are an excellent staple for them, much better than crickets, and no you do not need to dust them with calcium as they have the correct calciumhosphorus ratio. You can dust them with a multivitiamin that contains D3 2x a week.. Or as noted by previous poster, if they get natural sunlight at least 3x a week, you can omit the D3 completely.

 

[ericchaos]

Ok so, just to make sure I'm not gonna end up killing my baby (god forbid)

I can safely feed him appropriately sized reptiworms instead of crickets? And The worms should be dusted with D3? Any other vitamins?

Reptiworms or phoenix worms are an excellent staple for them, much better than crickets, and no you do not need to dust them with calcium as they have the correct calciumhosphorus ratio. You can dust them with a multivitiamin that contains D3 2x a week.. Or as noted by previous poster, if they get natural sunlight at least 3x a week, you can omit the D3 completely.

Awesome. Reptiworms.com has a couple different sizes. What size would you recommend for a 6" baby? I read they can be slightly bigger than the crickets because the softer shell makes it easier to digest?

 

[Carnivorouszoo]

For that small I would go with smalls, but they are so good for your baby they will soon need mediums Actually, thinking on it I think I read that mediums would be ok because they are so soft.